City overtime mounting

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Overtime spending by Honolulu's city government has ballooned by at least $3.39 million this year because of staff shortages and incidents related to the Sept. 11 attacks, and at least one department spent more than double its overtime budget. But the city's top finance officials say they don't know how much has been paid altogether because they haven't tracked the expenditures.

As long as city departments stay within their overall salary budgets, there is no need to routinely monitor how much of the money is spent on overtime, said city budget director Caroll Takahashi.

But some City Council members say there is not enough public accounting of how the money is spent and whether the salary budgets and overtime are always justified.

It has become common for departments to exceed the overtime portion of their budgets and cover the difference with money set aside for personnel who were never hired, they say, and that makes it difficult to determine whether the money is being spent effectively.

"This is a perfect example of why we need a full-time independent auditor," Councilman Jon Yoshimura said.

Alleged rampant overtime abuse and other problems in at least one agency, the Environmental Services Department, has triggered internal investigations and a major union grievance. Workers say overtime at the department's Kailua Wastewater Treatment Plant has been out of control because of poor oversight.

Executive assistant Tim Houghton said his department had spent about $800,000 more than its $4.5 million overtime budget, or 17 percent over budget, but that such expenditures were not uncommon and were needed to cover unfilled positions.

Although most departments include overtime in their salary budgets every year, the amount budgeted for overtime does not appear in budget documents made available to the council and the public, nor does the amount that is actually spent on overtime, council budget chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said.

"It should be shown in the budget or in some follow-up letter," she said. "It seems to me that every penny should be accounted for, because it's public money. That information should be readily available to the public."

But it's not. And city officials would not provide all of it, despite repeated inquiries.

Takahashi released the departmental overtime budgets for the fiscal year that ends June 30, but provided no accounting of how much overtime had actually been paid. The budgeted total is $23,632,747, and with additional holiday pay provided to the Honolulu Police Department, the city's overtime total is budgeted at $27,188,366.

After agreeing to detail the amount that was actually spent on overtime so far this fiscal year, she later said the information would not be made available any time soon.

A May 30 memo signed by Takahashi, however, provides a glimpse of the overtime picture for this year.

The city's Department of Design and Construction salary budget included $395,000 for overtime, but it spent $423,330 more than that with money from positions that were not filled, according to the memo. Department director Rae Loui did not return calls over several days. Parks and Recreation Department director Bill Balfour also did not return repeated calls regarding that agency's overtime budget.

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said each department's budget is scrutinized carefully before it is presented to the council, and that overtime must be justified to Takahashi and others before it is included.

Both Takahashi and Costa said they did not know how much their own departments spent on overtime so far this year. Overtime for Takahashi's Department of Budget and Fiscal Services was budgeted at $232,587, and Costa's Customer Services Department had budgeted $127,600 for overtime.

Kobayashi, who has repeatedly clashed with Mayor Jeremy Harris and his administration over its spending and debt restructuring plans, said it has been extremely difficult for her to obtain detailed city financial information in a timely manner. "It's very frustrating, and it's very difficult to put together a budget when you don't have details," she said. "What is there to hide?"

She said she has tried since March to get a full accounting of the overtime spent to put on the popular "Sunset on the Beach" free movie events that Harris began several months ago. Costa said the figures were not immediately available.

Some department heads have been more open, and say they spent more than their overtime budgets mostly because they were unable to recruit and retain enough workers to fill all the positions they have. Public safety agencies said increased security requirements after Sept. 11, and the anthrax scares that followed, also gave them a big overtime spike.

The Police Department expects to exceed its $16.6 million overtime and holiday pay budget by $1.8 million, or 11 percent over budget, but will cover the cost with money from vacant positions, Maj. Susan Ballard said.

The year before, the department was able to stay within its overtime budget even though it had to train for and respond to street protests when the Asian Development Bank had its annual meeting here, an event it had not budgeted for. There was even enough overtime left to pay for a traffic enforcement program at the end of that year.

Police say low pay causes continuing staff shortages that often must be covered with overtime, and last week the chiefs of all four county police departments in the state made a public appeal for increased compensation for their officers. The Honolulu Police Department is short 264 officers and 38 dispatchers, Chief Lee Donohue said.

The Fire Department exceeded its $1.75 million overtime budget by more than $81,000 this year, according to Capt. Richard Soo. About $140,000 in overtime was the result of the anthrax scares, he said.

The Emergency Services Department spent at least $290,396 more than its $1,514,839 million overtime budget, director Salvatore Lanzilotti said, largely because of a shortage of paramedics. Twenty-two of the city's 153 paramedic positions are vacant, and another 16 paramedics are on long-term leave because of injuries or other reasons, he said.

Councilman Steve Holmes, who formerly chaired the budget committee, said it is sometimes cost effective for departments to leave positions vacant and pay others overtime to cover them, because added expenses, such as additional employee benefits, are eliminated.

"But it's a diminishing return because people are getting burned out, so you have to worry about retention," he said.

Yoshimura said he hoped the council would agree to sponsor a charter amendment this year asking voters to approve an independent auditor for City Hall. Holmes said he favors a competing bill that would increase the city's existing auditing staff but keep it under the council's control.

Correction: The city Department of Emergency Services has spent $1,805,235 on overtime this year, or $290,396 more than the $1,514,839 overtime in its budget. A previous version of this story had a different figure for budgeted overtime.